A rhetorical analysis essay should consist of the following:
Continue as needed. In this paragraph, you might point out rhetorical fallacies, such as bandwagon, ad hominem, or any others you notice, if you have not yet done so. Indicate how they strengthen or weaken the writer’s position. If you have already addressed all the elements of your analysis, discuss the writer’s approach to counterclaims. You may need more than four body paragraphs for your rhetorical analysis.
Following a transition, write a topic sentence to address another point or points in the text. Discuss the strategies used, provide examples and quotations as appropriate, and show how they support (or don’t support) the writer’s thesis statement. Consider rhetorical strategies such as parallelism, repetition, rhetorical questions, and figurative language.
Write a topic sentence explaining your first point of analysis. If you begin with what you think is the writer’s strongest point, state what it is and explain the rhetorical strategies used to support it. Provide appropriate quotations from the text. (Suggestion: Address ethos, pathos, and logos first. You may need more than one paragraph to cover them.)
To write a rhetorical analysis essay example:
Your next step is to start supporting your thesis statement—that is, how the writer does or does not succeed in persuading readers. To accomplish this purpose, you need to look closely at the rhetorical strategies the writer uses.
When you have completed your list, consider how to structure your analysis. You will have to decide which of the writer’s statements are most effective. The strongest point would be a good place to begin; conversely, you could begin with the writer’s weakest point if that suits your purposes better. The most obvious organizational structure is one of the following:
After you have read your text several times and have a clear understanding of it as a piece of rhetoric, consider whether the writer has succeeded in being persuasive. You might find that in some ways they have and in others they have not. Then, with a clear understanding of your purpose—to analyze how the writer seeks to persuade—you can start framing a thesis statement: a declarative sentence that states the topic, the angle you are taking, and the aspects of the topic the rest of the paper will support.
As you formulate your rhetorical analysis, be aware of the following approaches and strategies that writers use to persuade an audience. Your goal will be to identify them in your analysis, explain their use, and evaluate their effectiveness.
Moreover, a good rhetorical analysis essay should be:
A rhetorical analysis considers all elements of the rhetorical situation–the audience, purpose, medium, and context–within which a communication was generated and delivered in order to make an argument about that communication. A strong rhetorical analysis will not only describe and analyze the text but will also evaluate it; that evaluation represents your argument. The rhetorical situation identifies the relationship among the elements of any communication–audience, author (rhetor), purpose, medium, context, and content. The time, place, and public conversations surrounding the text during its original generation and delivery should also be considered; the text may also be analyzed within a different context, such as how a historical text would be received by its audience today.
Rhetorical Analysis Essay Outline Example
A rhetorical analysis essay decomposes how an author delivers a message and persuades the audience. This analytical process examines the techniques, appeals, and structure contributing to the work's effectiveness.
Rhetorical Analysis Essay Outline Example
After they use the outline, you might even want to help them refine their ideas, structure, or overall writing a little by including these tips as they learn how to do rhetorical analysis.
Rhetorical Analysis Essay Sample
The thesis should include the speaker, audience, purpose, strategies, and universal idea/message as this will make the process of how to do rhetorical analysis much simpler!
Rhetorical Analysis Essay Sample
Personally, I like to focus on the second “S” (Strategies) part of S.P.A.U.T.S. for my annotation time as I teach how to do rhetorical analysis. You could choose ANY informational or nonfiction text to annotate.